Bruce Remick wrote:
"RWF" wrote in message
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"Mr. Jaggers" lugburzman[at]yahoo[dot]com wrote in message
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RWF wrote:
"oly" wrote in message
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There was a fellow who had scads of Hardy Boys (in tan-colored
hard covers) out at the flea market today. My guess is that they
were vintage 1946-1955. When I got around to reading the H.B. in
the late 1960s, the covers were illustrated in color.

I've never followed these things. Is there any thing in that
vintage of H.B. that one should look for? The seller wanted
$2.50 each, probably could have bought the lot for less than that
per copy.

Tan covered books without dust jackets are practically worthless.

As a bibliophile, I share the phobia about antiquarian books that
lack dj. But why is this? Numismatists have their cleaning issues,
but why do book collectors often pay more for a dj than for the
book itself? There's gotta be some deep, philosophical,
psychological cause. 'Splain that one, if you can.

Why do people pay thru the nose for DJs?

Probably they're mostly purists who insist on their edition being as
issued. Like registry set collectors. I can understand when I see
penny bubble gum card wrappers from the 1940's and 1950's selling for
hundreds of dollars. If I had saved all the discarded wrappers from
the cards I bought in the 1940's alone, I could finance Ira on a coin
buying spree today. I remember the owner of the little store where
we bought our cards yelling at us not to throw all those wrappers on
the ground outside his store.

The fact that we showed such disdain for them then contributes to their
rarity today. Why we care today about Bazooka Joe and Pud cartoons printed
on wax paper is another issue entirely.

James